Neocons Wrong . . . Again

President Obama is being excoriated by the neocons for “causing” or “not preventing” the Russian incursion into Crimea. There are both wrong and stupid.

A little history first. Remember the cold war? Do you know why we “won?” Simply put the “war” was the U.S. and our allies on one side against the U.S.S.R. (aka “Russia plus a few satellite states” and its allies). we “won” because our allies were a source of support and power to us and the U.S.S.R.’s allies were an almost total drain on them. Think of Cuba as one of their allies, a huge drain on their resources. And while Cuba wasn’t typical, it was a lot closer to the norm than many are willing to admit.

So, Russian President Putin has stormed into the Crimean peninsula to protect the largely Russian population there from a pro-west government of Ukraine which has made its anti-Russian sentiments known. Fine, Crimea was a Russian province until 1953 when Khrushchev (a Ukrainian native) deeded it over to Ukraine. What this actually means is a large number of pro-Russian voters has been removed from Ukraine, making it more likely for it to vote to join Europe. Also, Crimea depends upon Ukraine for its essential services which Russia will now have to underwrite.

The mistake Russia is making is that the old geopolitics has failed. Having buffer states to protect against massed tank-led invasions isn’t really needed anymore. Looking at Ukraine as an entre into the E.U. would have been better, harder to pull off, but better. Of course it would require additional westernization of Russia and greater expectations of having a government that is less oppressive, but it would have been on the right side of history.

So, if Russia pulls this off and annexes Crimea it will have, again, added a very weak ally to its sphere and pushed a stronger ally, Ukraine, away.

Russia is not solely to blame here. It tried to work with the West, slowly and more along lines they could accept, but those pushing and pulling for modernization created a pace they could not follow. This may eventually be to everyone’s detriment if Russia continues to isolate itself behind a wall of weak satellite states.

Our focus should be on the American poor, the American middle-class, and, what was that phrase the Republicans use so much, of yeah, “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.”

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Since both Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine years ago (and were called stupid by Obama and his minions in the Press), this post must be from the leftist alternative multiverse.

And remember Hillary’s much ballyhooed Cold War reset?

What a joke.

The people presently running the American government don’t have a clue about the economy or why the Russians and Chinese start marching immediately after Obama promises to gut the US military back to pre-WWII levels.

Hitler, Mussolini and Imperial Japan did exactly the same thing under the same circumstances.

Hahaha… “Huge increase”? It’s in-line with incremental increases over the last 20 years! And yes, SOM, it remains LESS THAN TEN PERCENT of the US military budget, and that’s not including “black projects.”

I see Russian takeover of Crimea as an attempt to absorb the primary competitor to Russia’s own tourist areas around Sochi. Because as a buffer state, Crimea is absolutely useless: tanks can just bypass it on the way to Russia proper.

If Putin gets Crimea, he will completely alienate Ukraine. Before, he had a chance to make Ukraine a part of Russia’s sphere of influence due to historical and national ties, and the fact that EU didn’t really have that much to offer (they did offer an agreement, but weren’t about to make Ukraine a member any time soon). Now, he’s just a land grabber to the rest of Ukraine – and Ukraine’s non-Russian majority would get bigger if Crimea is out.

This was the flaw in Putin’s actions I tried to make in an earlier post. Think about it from a cold war perspective: if the U.S.S.R tried to create a communist government in Mexico, how would we have responded? Similarly Russia sees Ukraine being wooed by the West, granted not with full EU status but a road leading there was being offered (and our diplomats were all in favor of helping that along), and reacted . . . in any way differently than we would have then (or even now)?

Actually, It’s not about creating a buffer state at all. It’s about maintaining control over the ports and bases of the Black Sea Fleet, a misnamed “unit” since it includes extensive infantry and air elements. If Russia loses Crimea, they lose their only good access to the Med.